Best College For Politics

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I've heard the question asked a number of times around here and other places, so I thought I would do a little research. I looked up all fifty governors and found what school they went to. I was wondering whether more governors come from their state's flagships, or if it were more common to come from an "elite" university. Giving props to Wikipedia, this is what I found:</p>

<p>(I listed schools they recieved degrees from)
Alabama-Riley (University of Alabama)
Alaska-Palin (University of Idaho)
Arizona-Brewer NONE
Arkansas-Beebe (Arkansas State University/University of Arkansas)
California-Schwarzenegger (University of Wisconsin-Superior)
Colorado-Ritter (Colorado State University/University of Colorado)
Connecticut-Rell (Old Dominion University)
Delaware-Mackell (Brown University/University of Chicago)
Florida-Crist (Florida State University)
Georgia-Perdue (University of Georgia)
Hawaii-Lingle (Cal State Northridge)
Idaho-Otter (College of Idaho)
Illinois-Quinn (Georgetown University/Northwestern University)
Indiana-Daniels (Princeton University/Georgetown University)
Iowa-Culver (Virginia Tech/Drake University)
Kansas-Sibelius (University of Kansas)
Kentucky-Beshear (University of Kentucky)
Louisiana-Jindal (Brown University/University of Oxford)
Maine-Baldacci (University of Maine-Orono)
Maryland-O’Malley (Catholic University/University of Maryland)
Massachusetts-Patrick (Milton Academy/Harvard University)
Michigan-Granholm (University of California-Berkeley/Harvard University)
Minnesota-Pawlenty (University of Minnesota)
Mississippi-Barbour (University of Mississippi)
Missouri-Nixon (University of Missouri)
Montana-Schweitzer (Colorado State University/Montana State University)
Nebraska-Heinemann (US Military Academy)
Nevada-Gibbons (University of Nevada-Reno/University of Southern California)
New Hampshire-Lynch (University of New Hampshire/Harvard University/Georgetown University)
New Jersey-Corzine (University of Illinois-UC/University of Chicago)
New Mexico-Richardson (Tufts University)
New York-Paterson (Columbia University/Hofstra University)
North Carolina-Perdue (University of Kentucky/University of Florida)
North Dakota-Hoeven (Dartmouth College/Northwestern University)
Ohio-Strickland (Asbury College/University of Kentucky)
Oklahoma-Henry (University of Oklahoma)
Oregon-Kulongoski (University of Missouri)
Pennsylvania-Rendell (University of Pennsylvania/Villanova University)
Rhode Island-Carcieri (Brown University)
South Carolina-Sanford (Furman University/University of Virginia)
South Dakota-Rounds (South Dakota State University)
Tennessee-Bredesen (Harvard University)<br>
Texas-Perry (Texas A&M University)
Utah-Huntsman Jr. (University of Pennsylvania)
Vermont-Douglas (Middlebury College)
Virginia-Kaine (University of Missouri/Harvard University)
Washington-Gregoire (University of Washington/Gonzaga University)
West Virginia-Manchin (West Virginia University)
Wisconsin-Doyle (University of Wisconsin-Madison/Harvard University)
Wyoming-Freudenthal (Amherst College/University of Wyoming)</p>

<p>Some interesting things about this is that 22 of the 50 governors went to elite universities, which I'll define as USNWR top 30 national universities, top 15 LACs, and the service academies. That's pretty darn good, condsidering how many universities there are in the country. Here's how the top schools breakdown:</p>

<p>Harvard-6
Georgetown-3
Brown-3
Penn-2
Chicago-2
Northwestern-2
Amherst-1
Middlebury-1
Virginia-1
Dartmouth-1
Columbia-1
Tufts-1
USC-1
West Point-1
Cal-Berkeley-1</p>

<p>Also interesting is that only four governors attended a LAC: Strickland, Sanford, Douglas, and Freudenthal. </p>

<p>32 of the governors graduated from a school in their state.</p>

<p>Anyways, that's all. I thought it was pretty interesting and since I didn't want the info to go to waste, I thought I'd post it here.</p>

2

<p>Should read, “Best college to spring board into a career in state politics” rather than best college for politics (since I’m sure you’d find few of these governors studied political science) and Congress would be a better measure for national political success.</p>

<p>Fun data nonetheless.</p>

3

<p>Bowdoin college was the rated the #1 small college in the world for undergraduate Goverment studies by London School of Economics a few years back.</p>

4

<p>Dartmouth’s [government</a> department](<a href=“http://www.dartmouth.edu/~govt/"]government”>http://www.dartmouth.edu/~govt/) and [public</a> policy program](<a href=“http://rockefeller.dartmouth.edu/"]public”>http://rockefeller.dartmouth.edu/) are both excellent.</p>

5

<p>STATE FLAGSHIP. You’ll want to know the people you’ll later represent as much as possible.</p>

6

<p>of the 7 states with an Ivy League school, 4 (RI, PA, MA, NY) have as their governor an alum of that school. Spiffy.</p>

<p>Like modestmelody, I’d be curious to see how these trends play out in Congress…</p>

7

<p>Yea, that is cool how that happened. I might do something for congress at some time but I don’t really feel like doing that right now.</p>